Hidden ingredients in coconut milk?

I've been hunting for a good coconut milk with no or at least minimum industrial stabilizers and preservatives. I found a brand called Aroy-D that produces coconut milk and also cream in paper cartons(so no BPA from cans) Here's a picture. One pack contains a phenomenal 2000 calories. It says 100% coconut milk.

BUT! On the ingredients list it says 100% coconut milk. Now is it possible that they can sneak some guar gum and stuff in it without listing them? I've heard that since guar gum is contained in such tiny amount, it doesn't need to be listed. Or does the term "coconut milk" contains guar gum?

i am pretty sure they either irradiate the coconuts or dip them in femaldahyde if they are conventional, your best bet is to source organic coconuts, just buy a case of mature ones, whip up coconut milk and store it in the freezer.

Coconut flour is also made from mature coconut meat. Perhaps you are thinking that the small brown husked coconuts in the average grocery store are young coconuts? Young coconuts are much larger because the white fibrous husk is left on. The flesh inside is limited and jelly like in consistancy. They are full of coconut water. Mature dry coconut: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coconut.png Young coconut: http://talusslopes.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html

I bought a nut milk bag on ebayUK a couple of weeks ago. I have used it with Blue Dragon creamed coconut and it has worked very well. I ate what was left in the bag with a little of the strained coconut milk, as a small dessert.

I bought a nut milk bag on ebayUK a couple of weeks ago. I have used it with Blue Dragon creamed coconut and it has worked very well. I ate what was left in the bag with a little of the strained coconut milk, as a small dessert.

Sorry, I should have translated that:
Water, coconut milk (90%), antioxidants E330 (citric acid), Contains Solphites; may provoke alergies.
This is what was listed for that Arroy-D 100 % percent coconut milk.
It's odd that 2 different suppliers list different info. I doubt anything we are buying in a container whether can or carton is pure. As others have said, if the additive is under a certain percentage it most likely doesn't have to be listed. So maybe, some suppliers have their own internal rules and include what the importers are not including on the labels.

Even if the Aroy has no declared Additives. It might have additives which dont have to be declared. The decleration is done by the food laws and if this allows something it wont be declared. What i mean is if there is additives in the package it probably will get in the coconut milk cause the milk is fatty and fat takes nutrients and also toxins.

Ican read no preservative. honestly if i look at the package. ITs outside a mix out of paper and plastic and inner a layer of metalictissue, probably alluminium.
There are additives which arent listed. And this are there cause of the production industry. If you go certified organic or small scall farms you know how it is produced and what they use. There wont be preservative inside the coonut milk. What about the package, fat easily takes toxins. So if the package is toxic the toxins go in the coconut milk.
Go organic or something else trust . Look behind the shining stages.

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If you have access to stores that sell young coconut, you can have them crack them open for you. Young coconut meat is easily scraped from the shell without much struggle... Save the water inside before scraping them. Once you have shelled the meat out, stick the water and meat in a blender. Blend until it's like a smooth consistency. Then put some cheesecloth in a large bowl... Pour the mixture in... Sift the liquid out... Then squeeze the cheese cloth until all you are left with is damp fiber...

Then take the fibers, add a little more water and blend it all again. Repeat the straining and squeezing process, until the fiber is dry again.

Now you've got fresh coconut milk. The process is a little time consuming... But the results are well worth it. Be sure you drink the milk in 2 days or freeze it immediately, otherwise it will go bad. Once you have tasted this... You will never want to go back.

Now remember those dry fibers? Dry them out a little more on a cookie sheet, then blend them till they are powder... You just made fresh coconut flour! Use it to make paleo baked goods.

Now I've heard that with the fresh milk, you can also cook out the oils as well and get unfiltered coconut oil. I have not tried this, as the milk oil mixture is just too damned good to waste, and I don't want to cook out the flavor. Maybe one day I will try it though.

With enough time put in you could easily have oil, flour, and milk for a few weeks.

Coconut flour is also made from mature coconut meat. Perhaps you are thinking that the small brown husked coconuts in the average grocery store are young coconuts? Young coconuts are much larger because the white fibrous husk is left on. The flesh inside is limited and jelly like in consistancy. They are full of coconut water. Mature dry coconut: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coconut.png Young coconut: http://talusslopes.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html

i am pretty sure they either irradiate the coconuts or dip them in femaldahyde if they are conventional, your best bet is to source organic coconuts, just buy a case of mature ones, whip up coconut milk and store it in the freezer.

One option is to order coconut cream from Tropical Traditions and dilute it--about 1/4 cup cream + 3/4 cup water. It comes in a jar, so no cans to mess with, and has no additives whatsoever. And did I mention it is delicious?

I don't think there is such thing as bpa free, guar gum free retail coconut milk. I've checked everywhere and I'm supersure there is something fishy with arroy-d. And yes, companies are allowed to say 100%. You see that in juice all the time yet if you read the ingredients it is made from concentrate, that 100% can be anything, so you cannot sue them for it. It could be 100% a drink for example.

I'm chiming in to say I just made my own coconut milk from 'fresh' coconuts yesterday because, like the above comment from Jayan, at least then I know what's actually in it!
And, well, the results were OK.

I used a fine mesh nut bag to strain out the fiberous solids (I blended coconut meat with coconut water and filtered tap water) and the end product was sweet, but not smooth. The coconut fats like to separate into small globs and there is a somewhat grainy look to the whole batch, like a cream soup that has 'broken'.

I'm sure the guar gum and other undisclosed thickeners are helpful in keeping the (canned and boxed) coconut milk 'creamy' and stop it from separating, but how healthy they are, I don't know.

I'd like to make whipped coconut cream again, but so far the only way I have been able to 'whip' coconut milk is by starting with canned coconut milk that's been chilled. I simply could not do it with the homemade coconut milk, even after refrigerating overnight.

If you need help opening coconuts, there are good videos on youtube - the best way I found is to whack the coconut in your hand (over a bowl) with the back/dull edge of a good quality/solid metal chef's knife, one that won't fly apart if used like a hammer :)Here's a link to my favorite how-to-open-a-coconut:

I bought a nut milk bag on ebayUK a couple of weeks ago. I have used it with Blue Dragon creamed coconut and it has worked very well. I ate what was left in the bag with a little of the strained coconut milk, as a small dessert.

I just bought some Arroy-D coconut milk today to try out. The ingredients printed on the can were coconut milk 55%, water. When we got home I noticed a little sticker on one end of the can that said it also contained E220 so I looked up E220 and found this page. I live in Spain so maybe Spanish or EU law says that E220 must be declared on the can? http://www.food-info.net/uk/e/e220.htm

I recetly tried coconut milk from a company called Diamond. I liked the taste but I think it was giving me belly aches which I suspect was being caused by the guar gum (E412). Guar gum is made from guar beans and I don't get on well with beans.

I have used Blue Dragon creamed coconut to make my own coconut milk by adding it to boiled water. It's a bit sickly for my tastes and very bitty.

I'm tinking about trying to make my own coconut milk from scratch but well over half of the coconuts we have brought here have been rotten so it sort of makes you wonder if it's worth bothering?

I bought a nut milk bag on ebayUK a couple of weeks ago. I have used it with Blue Dragon creamed coconut and it has worked very well. I ate what was left in the bag with a little of the strained coconut milk, as a small dessert.

I'm a little wary of the other ingredients in some of the brands, but the Gold Rooster brand (not sure that's what it's really called) is the best I've found in terms of taste, mouthfeel, and its ability to work in coffee. The Aroy-D is OK, but I agree that it's a tad on the grainy side.

The Premium Thai brand is awesome too, but at least twice the price of the Rooster where I shop.

I've found frozen coconut milk in the freezer section at one of my local Asian markets. There are no other ingredients listed aside from coconut milk. They also sell frozen grated coconut. Both are frozen in 1 lb plastic bags and cost $1.69. Maybe you can ask your local store to order these.

I think it's best only to drink water for a whole range of reasons. Also a coconut if you split it open has hardly any liquid in it so in the wild etc we would certainly not have been drinking a lot of fluid from them.

Some people are allergic to guar gum.
BTW, you can not make coconut milk from young coconuts. It is the old coconuts that have oil which is the main ingredient of coconut milk. I know that because I owned coconut plantations and coconut oil factory.
Joe Hing Kwok Chu

What makes me think there is something up with Aroy-D is that when I buy organic coconut milk with no preservatives from whole foods in a can, the milk separates and forms a thick block at the top of the can. This is something it should do. Now that doesnt happen with Aroy-D. This to me implies there is something in it keep it consistent. Anyone have further info?

I use Grace Creamed Coconut, a solid that comes in a 170 gram box that doesn't need to be refrigerated after opening. It has no additives (PURE CREAMED COCONUT, NO COLOURING, NO PRESERVATIVE). Can be mixed with water as a substitute for coconut milk. It's easy to just slice off however much you need. (Unlike when you need just half a cup but have to open a whole can.) Sometimes I don't mix it with water, e.g. when the sauce already contains water and I don't want to add more liquid which would make the sauce too runny. I'd add a photo if I could figure out how!

So, the question still has not been answered on whether Aroy-D in the vacuum box 100% Coconut Milk is really 100% Coconut Milk. Can a Company lie about something being 100%? Has anyone called the company or written to the company to find out? I have 6 six cartons sitting on my self and have not used them yet, because I want to know the truth first. So, I am looking for the Address and Phone number to the company. I would like to write and call to get the truth on this one. Can anyone help on that one. Assuming is not enough for me.
Sincerely,
Catgross
Ventura, CA

At the toko over here I buy a brand called TRS. On the ingredient list it says Coconut and some water.
I don't mind the water.
Whereas I bought a can from another brand,which stated to be 99,9% pure coconut milk but it had some preservative in it,being the 0,1%. So,I figured the 0,1% couldn't be noticible,but I found it had a 'funky' taste to it.
So,I stick with TRS....just no clue if this is the real deal.According to the owner of the store,TRS is known to list every ingredient on their products.

I use aroy-D all the time. (from the asian markets) There is only one other brand that I can get here (Blue dragon). No difference from one to the other and blue dragon is sold in health food stores.

The label actually says 60% coconut milk and water. (it is very dense though)
What you should know is that the brand name is not important but the manufacturer.
In this case: thai agri foods public company ltd.
I say this because there is another identical can with a different name for the Italian market (though both are sold here) that is produced by the same company.

Yes, Aroy-d does have two versions of the coconut milk, which doesn't make much sense to me. One intended for making deserts which is what I use and one for cooking.

Thanks to you I googled a bit:
I found this for the can:
Ingredients: coconut milk 55%, water, potassium metabisulfite (as perservative). Unsweetened.

derived from coal tar; all sulphur drugs are toxic and restricted in use (in USA, FDA** prohibits their use on raw fruits and vegetables), produced by combustion of sulphur or gypsum; known to provoke asthma attacks and difficult to metabolise for those with impaired kidney function, also destroys vitamin B1; typical products are beer, soft drinks, dried fruit, juices, cordials, wine, vinegar, potato products

Sorry, I should have translated that:
Water, coconut milk (90%), antioxidants E330 (citric acid), Contains Solphites; may provoke alergies.
This is what was listed for that Arroy-D 100 % percent coconut milk.
It's odd that 2 different suppliers list different info. I doubt anything we are buying in a container whether can or carton is pure. As others have said, if the additive is under a certain percentage it most likely doesn't have to be listed. So maybe, some suppliers have their own internal rules and include what the importers are not including on the labels.

Even if the Aroy has no declared Additives. It might have additives which dont have to be declared. The decleration is done by the food laws and if this allows something it wont be declared. What i mean is if there is additives in the package it probably will get in the coconut milk cause the milk is fatty and fat takes nutrients and also toxins.

Yep, the Aroy-D in the vacuum box is what I use. It's the only one I can find at my local 99 Ranch (West Coast Asian grocery store chain) that lists 100% coconut milk. There are plenty Aroy-D varieties in different cans with different levels/percentages of coconut milk. I've seen some label "for cooking" and "for dessert" with anywhere from 55%-65% coconut milk. The rest is additives such as guar gum and even water. This is even within the Aroy-D line of coconut milk. Therefore I stay away from the canned versions.

Attached is the Aroy-D in the vacuum box. They're $0.99 each at my 99 Ranch (SoCal).

Ican read no preservative. honestly if i look at the package. ITs outside a mix out of paper and plastic and inner a layer of metalictissue, probably alluminium.
There are additives which arent listed. And this are there cause of the production industry. If you go certified organic or small scall farms you know how it is produced and what they use. There wont be preservative inside the coonut milk. What about the package, fat easily takes toxins. So if the package is toxic the toxins go in the coconut milk.
Go organic or something else trust . Look behind the shining stages.

My favorite brand is Phoenix Barge. I usually buy the coconut cream, not the coconut milk. In Thailand, where the stuff comes from, they consider the juice that comes from the first pressing of the coconut meat to be "cream," and anything that comes out after that to be "milk." I find the cream has a stronger coconut flavor, and is thicker.

Phoenix Barge is the only brand I've found in the Asian grocery stores that contains only coconut cream and water (according to the label), and doesn't have the preservative potassium metabisulphide in it. It seems to make sense, since it goes bad after opening a bit faster than the stuff that contains potassium metabisulphide.

It's worth a try..I bought 6 today from the Asian store.(In a can,sadly,but in this town,beggars can't be choosers).Little thinner and less sweet than the standard varieties,but not bad.Nothing in it but water and coconut milk.